…….after a lengthy wait, I have, for your reading pleasure, edited and released Reaper VII: Soul Talker, the next installment in my Reaper Series following the adventures of nephalim vigilante Samantha Bennet!

At 61, 800 words, this is a bit longer than most volumes in my Reaper Series, which i think is what a lot of my readers were hoping for.

Currently, this novel is available only on Kindle from Amazon (amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com, amazon.de, et al) — however, in 90 days’ time, i will be making it available via Smashwords, who distributes to Apple and other platforms.

I hope that you enjoy this one!

I had a lot of fun sorting out ways to ruin Samantha’s life… but also, to place a dim flickering light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of a new, powerful and resourceful ally!

p.s. 61,800 words for this installment! A bit MORE than a novella… After Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, etc, I will offer it via Smashwords (who distributes to Apple, et al) and quite possibly in a paperback collection titled “Reaper V – VII: Lust Love Loss” via Lulu.com where I would do the max discount to consumers possible, just as i did with the paperback “Reaper I – V: Origin” (available through Lulu.com at the discounted rate, available through Amazon.com at approx $24, which I find kind of embarassing). Trying to make paperback versions of the series as affordable as possible, but self-publishing so totally hinders this!!!! Anyway, the above is my current plan…. but first off, gotta get Reaper VII uploaded to Amazon!!! Which I will do this morning! If it goes the way it usually does, it should be available in 48 hours or so!!!

……I just spent about 3 hours fiddling around with register.com’s Do-It-Yourself website builder.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, it’s not. Not by a long shot. The settings for the layout of the website design options are proving to be a real pain in the ass. Either that, or i am simply not talented enough to excel at use of the software.

However, since this is a dollar project on a dime budget, I shall have to use this service until I’m on a triple digit budget and can hire a techy to do my damned website for me!

At least I have SOME sense of layout & design & programming/coding…

Yet…I can make no great promises as to what you can expect from a website designed & implemented by yours truly.

I plan on posting some free stories (as file downloads, scroll-downs, etc) as well as contests for those uber-affordable Vistaprint mugs, mousepads, t-shirts, etc! So follow directions and enter my contests to get yourself some Amanda M. Holt swag when I announce the contest(s)!!!

Now that i’ve given up on website design for the evening, I intend to work on some manuscript revision — and maybe even some new stuff!!! *squee!!! New stuff is my favorite! Most frustrating but also most favorite!!!*

Sincere Regards & Happy Reading!

Amanda M. Holt

Amateur Authoress & Nurse with another 24+ hours off before returning to work!

p.s. – Reaper I – V and I and VI will be available at Kobo soon for the Kobo eReader!

As promised, Shades of Grey III: See No Evil is now available at Smashwords.com

The blurb:

When Crystal Grey, a teenager with dark secrets, disappears from her Vancouver home, her family is tormented by questions:

Where has Crystal gone?
Why hasn’t she returned?
Who is she with?
What is she doing?
Why did she leave?
When is she coming back?

Involved in the drug trade and running with a fast crowd, Crystal is now being exploited by some very sinister people – facts that the Vancouver Police Department are reluctant to reveal to her family.

When her sister, Eve is alerted that Crystal may have been spotted at a nightclub run by the Strikers biker gang, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

Eve refuses to sit idly by and watch her sister become some kind of statistic. However, the strain of the situation is taking its toll…

You see, Eve has a few dark secrets of her own.

Secrets from the past, secrets born of madness and violence that whisper seductively to Eve in waking and in dream, calling her to action, calling her to punish the people who have hurt her baby sister, who are using her for their own criminal gain.

These nightmarish voices, thought to have been silenced by a team of mental health professionals years before, seem as though they are back and more vicious than ever before.

Will Eve once again give in to their siren song and take justice into her own hands? Even if it’s at the cost of her very sanity?

This anger inside of her is so wrathful, so unnatural, so all-consuming, so…hungry.

Sometimes, she just doesn’t feel like herself…

….sometimes, it’s as if she doesn’t feel human at all…

With her multiple personalities wrestling with Eve for control of Their conscious mind and shared body, Eve is finding the exhaustive tug-of-war situation to be more taxing than ever.

What’s to become of her?

Worse still — what’s to become of Crystal?

__________________________________

Look for Book Four ~ Shades of Grey: Speak No Evil in September/October of 2012

……wrapped up the 9-page Prologue on one of the novels in a horror/paranormal series I am working on….this is the Series that I only speak of in hushed whispers to colleagues or when i’m face to face with some random stranger who is curious about what i’m working on… Or apparently when I stumble unto helpful men who present themselves as admirable sources of information (or who can point me to additional resources…I wasn’t sure where to start with my research for the one project….now I know — Thanks, Rick). The Prologue is, to me, a nice intro to the background story of the main character (who i have chosen to name Paige) who i will gush about in future installments of WordPress blogs.

I don’t know which of the books in this series (and i have approx 13 planned, great number for a supernatural series, IMHO) will be the first released — at this rate, it will likely end up being whichever one is finished first….It is my intention that they will all be novel-length (think 75,000 word mark), and feature locales in MB, Saskabush, and I’m thinking a few other provinces. Being a proud Canadian, I am trying to get out of the habit of writing about Americans or featuring US metropolises as the location for my tales… IMHO, Canada as location, especially small town Canadiana or Northern Canada, are untapped resources. Which is a shame, really, because our country is gorgeous, its geography as diverse as its people — and its mythology, ghost stories, urban legends, etc.

That last sentence may have given away the general theme of my series….suffice to say, I’m keeping it more or less under wraps until I have 1 – 3 titles of the 13 to realease.

Since some of those titles (take “Paige” for example) whisper some days and roar others. Today, she shrieked like a housewife who’s just found her husband in bed with his golf trio wrestling sans clothing. Today, “Daniel” kind of whispered, and “Tic Tic” went Tic Tic and kind of reminded me that they’re lurking around in my head… I look outside my kitchen window and I hear the calls and cries of the flagship of the series going “forget about the others, write about us, write about us” and “don’t forget to drive out there….you gotta get back in THE ZONE!!!!” and “but is it all connected as a subterranean complex, or???”

As you can imagine, imaginings can be quite demanding little creatures at times.

And isn’t it funny, there’s a point in every moon cycle — and every woman’s cycle, which seems to be correlating ATM — that creativity surges, a spark burst into being, the spark flares and the fire of “What if-?” is born…whether to sear too soon and fizzle out in a brief puff, or smolder long with much smoke or burn bright and true with fuel that may stand the test of time……it’s always hard to predict, isn’t it.

I genuinely hope that people will find my series interesting. Interesting enough to sit through all 13 installments?

XX fingers crossed XX

Enough about my not-so-secret top secret project, now.

On to what i propose to work on this week on my days off: SHADES OF GREY: BOOK 3 aka See No Evil. I broke my promise to myself, to a friend, and to the general public. It was due to be out in July, i shall try my very absolute best to have it out by my birthday (August 13th, if anyone’s interested 😀 ). I’ll be 33, which is a duo of my favorite number (3), so I am satisfied that I am turning this age. 32 was a good year, it had its ups and downs, but in my biased magically thinking numerically titillated opinion, 32 is a boring number. Not a prime 😦 Not evenly divisible by 3. Divisible by two 16 times (who cares). Adds up to five when 3 + 2 are put together (its only saving grace). 33 — 3 x 11 (prime by a prime, cool) and two 3’s, also cool. So ya, I have a little infatuation with numbers.

There — look, a slithery thing on the underbelly of my mind.

It be true, there are other slithery things there 😀

You shoulda seen how excited i got about turning 27.

That was 3 x 3 x 3. divisible by 3 nine times. or 9 three times….3x3x3….beautiful…

Three 3’s.

3 cubed…

Okay, time to feed myself and start thinking about getting ready to work. Like, at the thing that pays my bills and is the other source of gratification/accomplishment in my life: nursing.

So ya, I’m getting hungry.

Was originally going to have ribs at a joint outside of town, but am now glad that i didn’t, because I had a great chat with the owner who ended up offering himself as a resource (and offering to point me in the direction of some local history buffs) — so really, it all worked out to benefit me GREATLY!!!

Tuna sandwich for supper, Ribs next saturday if i don’t work 🙂 My treat to myself, if I am very productive.

Weight watchers points are taking a beating, but I gotta feed my brain, it does the thinking that does the doing that does the coffee pouring that does the drinking that does the thinking that….oops. got stuck in a loop.

I was sick for a week, then i went to Saskatoon for a week, then travelled all over Manitoba for a week, now am back to work doing night shifts.

And TONIGHT, realizing that I haven’t put out any titles in a while, I opted to finish the edits on Reaper VI: Lust and upload it, rather than spend that time on apartment cleaning (the original plan for my down time between shifts! 🙂 ). Uploaded same to Kindle/Amazon, should be up within 24 hours or so. Will take longer to put on Smashwords, I have to re-format ALL the files. However, the exclusivity arrangements between Amazon and i have all ended, so I can put Reaper I – VI on Smashwords as soon as I have/make time.

Thank you for your patience — I will try to put out Shades of Grey III and Reaper VII within the next few weeks. No promises though: there may be some changes with my work schedule.

…….due in part to the persuasive energies of the SUPERmoon, I seem to have rekindled my interest in all things paranormal, SUPERhero, SUPERhuman, horrific, sci-fi, fantasy and cool in general. This seems to include anything bad ass IMHO.

This exploration of self – and rediscovery of previous passions – has resulted in two sizeable purchases from the Book Nook here in T-Town (READ: comics, paperbacks, Trade Paper Backs, Luis Royo hardcover art collections, numerous Heavy Metal items, action figures [HAD TO get the Bubba-Ho-Tep, Predator 2, and Tall Man from Phantasm (came with little ghoulish minion)!], free comics from FREE COMIC BOOK DAY [FCBD 2012]). This wonderous madness began when I searched eBay for Gen13 comics a few weeks back and found an interesting lot of 114 books…..which are now in my possession *evil grin*. Now that I have discovered the Book Nook, I will likely be a reagular fixture on days off when I am here in T-Town seeking out inspiration for my own works….. it’s very interesting, how flipping through a Royo book of penciled sketches of women with weapons can lead to vivid imaginings of the people who may or may not be involved in their unwritten story, the villains, the monsters, the personal demons, the hopes, the dreams, so on and so forth. At least, that’s how MY twisted brain works….

Suffice it to say, I am hoping to get some INTENSIVE reading and writing done in the next few months.

Since I’ve just joined Weight Watchers, that R & W will of course have to be balanced with a good dose of E & AOFP (exercise and assorted other fitness pursuits!!!). I have approximately 77 lbs I want to shed, so it will be an interesting adventure. So far, WWO (Weight Watchers Online) is a great source of support, planning, tracking, and so on — very useful programming indeed, well worth the $110/6month subscription I have outfitted myself with.

And, for every 5 lbs I lose, I am going to gift myself with a gorgeous pair of shoes from JustFabulous, sexy shoes being my OTHER rekindled obsession!!!

…going to be gone approximately two weeks, so I will not be putting out any titles during that time.

After I return to Canada, likely over the weekend of April 6 – April 8, 2012, I am going to be releasing Her Man (contemporary romance), Getting Lucky I: Pedro & Eddie (interracial erotica), and Shades of Grey: Prologue & Shades of Grey: Hear No Evil (paranormal/thriller/horror/adventure) at Smashwords.

Currently, they are only available as Kindle titles. I am uploading them to Smashwords so that they can be distributed to Kobo, etc., on multiple formats/platforms. I also have some titles that were previously available only at eXtasy Books (and I believe some from New Concepts Publishing) that I will be releasing at Smashwords and Amazon/Kindle in the near future.

New works are in development, but between my full time nursing career and the editing & re-release of Second Editions, I am finding it difficult to make/find time to give those projects the full attention they deserve.

Up next? Shades of Grey III: See No Evil, Reaper VI: Lust, and the first *brand new* novel in a series I am working on about things that go bump in the night here in Northern Canada…..that’s all i’m saying about that project, it’s very near and dear to my heart, and I am developing it with the kind of slow, cautious consideration and cossetting that one rations for their most worthy of hobbies…

I’m actually very shy about speaking about it, and when I do, I seem to use very reverent language in a sort of breathless incantation resembling whispers of awestruck self-delusion about genius approaching infamy…

Anyway — on to China!

Wish me luck!

Sincere regards & Happy Reading!

Amanda M. Holt

Amateur Authoress, Neophyte Tourist and International Woman of Mystery (?)

Lil ol’ me

I'm a published Canadian author of contemporary and paranormal romance and erotica (eBooks thus far!), aspiring to become a household horror icon...There's a lot of writer's anxiety and elbow grease (or rather, risk of developing carpal tunnel) that precedes getting published - and this is my blog all about it!